Scaling New Peaks in Chile

In addition to majoring in history at the University of California, Berkeley, American student Justin Harford minors in Spanish and applied for an intensive language study program in Chile. Justin, who has glaucoma, uses a white solid NFB cane, Braille, and a computer program called VoiceOver for accessibility, although in his travels to China, Mexico, and now Chile, he has discovered how to draw on other resources for access.

In Justin's blog, which he keeps to supplement his personal journal entries, he tracks his progress in Spanish comprehension, describes a ski trip with friends and other activities, and elaborates on Chile's accessibility. In one especially moving entry, he vents his frustration after being told that he would not be invited to accompany his peers on an excursion to the El Teniente mine due to the alleged danger posed to a blind person. In the entry he argues,

"How do we design something for the blind? Are the chairs that you sit in designed for blind people? What about the computers that you are using to read this? Of course they are not, and we don't have to call a manufacturer of blind "bling" every time we want to set up an office or furnish a home for us to live in.

Is the Cerro de Santa Lucía located near the downtown center of Santiago accessible to the blind? Are the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun in Teotihuacan designed for the blind? Did the Chinese kings of the days of old force the slaves to design the Great Wall to be scaled by their blind courtiers? What about all the mountains, valleys and meadows that the glaciers, creeks and winds have forged for us over time, was the peak of Mount Lassen, located in the north of California, designed to be climbed by the blind?

No, and yet I have visited and scaled all of them."

Follow Justin's blog, titled "Justin Goes to Chile," by clicking here.